Skynet to play Ken Jennings on Jeopardy...

there's no difference in him reading a clue off the board with a camera and being fed the clue by a machine. both will occur at some instantaneous rate that will be microscopic compared to the time to process the clue. this entire program is a study in connecting human language with computers, not a computers ability to see text on a screen optically and translate into digital words. thats already been done and adding it to watson probably would not be that difficult.

if watson was given this ability, they should have a category called "recaptcha" where it must process words written very poorly.
 
PSA, an in depth look at the inner workings of Watson and how he has "born" was on nova last night. In sure it will be reaired, it's pretty good so far.
 
Things learned from the show:

Watson can not hear or see. He is fed the clues through a "text message" at the same time the humans are given the clues. This is fair, except when it comes to the buzzer. They didn't actually talk at all about how Watson rings in (which is almost as important as how much he knows since Jeopardy champions are often determined by not what they know but by how good they are ringing in). It seems like Watson will go off reaction, once he detects the buzzer is active he rings in, which means he will always win on the buzzer (assuming the comes up with the clue in time, which I think is the case.) Definite advantage to the computer, since on any fact-based question Watson will always win, and the few that he can't get and all word play based questions will be split more or less 50/50 between Ken and Brad. Personally, I would have liked to have seen Watson play Ken only, and then play Brad only, to get the real CPU v human contest. Playing against two humans only hinders the humans and makes it easier for Watson to win.
 
Oh, well I mean, I guess Watson takes sone time to search it's millions of documents. I would've thought that as a supercomputer it would've had the ability to do all of it's "thinking" before the buzzer was activated. If this was the case, I would think it would win all buzz ins. Seems like They need a couple more CPUs to speed it up.
 
pretty interesting first show. it became pretty apparent that watson doesn't always win on the buzzer, and i dont have the numbers in front of me but it seemed like he won the majority on the buzzer. so far so good
 
And final Jeopardy today was interesting. The category was "U.S. Cities," and the computer answered Toronto. The thing is dominating, but it seems like that was a basic programming error. I was disappointed Brad and Ken fell behind in Double Jeopardy...wanted them to have a chance at the end.

I think the buzzing was discussed in this thread already, but it would have made it more interesting if Watson had a slight handicap on the buzzing. As it is, Brad and Ken can hardly buzz in.
 
Yah, i mean in a computer mind, the final jeopardy is going to be tough because FJ questions usually have more words and information. Obviously watson has time enough to analyze it but, with so many key words you'll start getting random answers.

i wouldve liked to have seen how watson would have bet had it been closer. most of the time he had to make a wager he already had a sizable lead and choose to play it safe, which is the correct move obviously. maybe tomorrow

as far as buzzing in, that was always my first question when i heard a computer would play. being good on the buzzer is clearly his biggest advantage since what watson doesnt know will be split by brad and ken and wont be enough to overcome what watson does know. its kinda ironic though, one of Ken's biggest advantages in his 74 game streak was being able to absolutely destroy opponents on the buzzer since he had so much practice. now he is being destroyed by somebody even better at the buzzer than he is. watson is to ken jennings as ken jennings is to the 150 poor souls that had to face KJ.
 
Watson definitely should have had to scan across the room and/or listen to the clue like every other contestant. Watson should also have to react to the "it's okay to buzz in" light and/or Alex Trebek finishing the question just like every other contestant, before buzzing in.

They modified key rules, and the computer gained an advantage no other contestant has ever had.

Still a cool deal that the computer could respond to nearly all of the clues correctly.

But as a long-time Jeopardy watcher, I was annoyed that they altered the rules for the computer. The computer should have to play exactly like everyone else plays.
 
I suppose, but c'mon, one of the key advantages a computer has it's instantaneous reaction time. Even if it had to key off the lights, it still would react at the speed of light and the only way Ken/Brad would've gotten in is if they rang in based on prediction rather than reaction (which is what good jeopardy players do anyway). I still don't think there's any way that you can eliminate the buzz in advantage a computer has over a human, that's just a fundamental thing a computer can do. I guess the only way that it could be done was to intentionally program the computer to react at the speed of a human to level the playing fields.

I think the fairest way to have done it would've been to have them play trivial pursuit or something where reaction time isn't factored in or just find each players coryat score and determine the winner that way
 
Most importantly, Watson is not just a computer that plays Jeopardy. I think people are getting too wrapped up in the Jeopardy element and not realizing that its Jeopardy playing skills are just a proof of concept - that Watson is a machine with a vast amount of knowledge and can query that knowledge intelligently in a matter of seconds.

Deep Blue had no real-world value other than to show that a computer can beat a human at chess. Watson can beat humans at Jeopardy, but that's not its real world value and that's not how it is going to be marketed, sold, and used from this point on.

When looked at it from that standpoint, who really cares about the Jeopardy rules or whether the match was completely fair? It is an amazing showcase of technology (to those who don't understate its importance) and made for good entertainment.
 
thats true, it wouldve been a huge waste of money if watson hadnt been given an opportunity to prove itself. IBM spends 1-2 billion on this thing, then Ken and Brad beat it on the buzzer and it never gets an opportunity to answer and we learn nothing about where we are when it comes to AI and such. its obviously too boring if watson just plays by itself, and more people are going to watch if Ken and Brad make an appearance. Really, it was an hour and half commercial for IBM and that's really what it was intended to be.
 
Ken seemed to have gotten better at beating Watson at the buzzer in the second game. If luck had gone a little differently and he had gotten both of the Daily Doubles, he could have won.
 
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